I would suggest you try to contact some members in your area if possible. There are still 3 individual service MARS programs, Army, AF, and Navy.  Do you have a service preference? Since I am ex AF, I leaned toward AF Mars, even though Army Mars was more active in my area. In our North Central division there are area nets 6-7am, 8-9am, and 7-10pm central time. You will find that you will get out of Mars what you put into it. I have seen people join and give up after a few months, and I have seen people join as quickly rise to net control and volunteer leadership positions.  I recommend you speak with a person, either in person or on phone  and not rely on email discussions entirley if possible.   I recommend you monitor the nets you will be participating in so you can get some idea of the activity you will be taking part in. That info will only be available by phone or individual email as we are restricted from publicly giving out Mars frequencies. (you might look at some of the SWL magazines like Monitoring times).
The main reasons I have seen folks dissatisfied are ,
1. Initially they did not have full info. I have seen people join without ever having heard a Mars net, or know what Mars was really about. Some did not even have HF equipment when joining.
2. As most of our frequencies are in the lower HF range, 100watts and a good dipole are really needed, 10 watts to the rain gutter will be frustrating . I have tried that.

If you are in a rural area, there may not be a member of any of the services near you.

There have been lots of rumors about consolidation and major changes, but those rumors have been around since the military started scaling back their Mars operations in the early 1990s, and none of them have happened yet, 20 years later.

Our AF Mars website for north central area is very good, just google-- North Central area USAF mars  for the link.

You will probably need some type of digital capability- one of the soundcard modes .

If I can be of further help. let me know

73, Dave KA0P

I see a common thread on most of the posts about MARS not being present at local events.
 As a current AF MARS member, we have no vhf activity in my location, A major city but only 3 members. Most of our members are spread out, and membership has thinned in the past 20 years.  However MARS still has a very  good point to point long haul HF capability.  We have very limited VHF activity.  Thats where I see most of the emphasis going. Some locations    may have some vhf simplex activity, and there are a few locations that have enough members to contribute to keeping a repeater going.

Dave 

Understand your frustration, they probably should have recommended not applying till you had your hf station set up. The 6 months goes by fast. Not sure what service Mars you joined, I am a long time AF MARS member, also not retired, and right now just making the minimum time to stay active. I am in the St. Louis area and in the late 70s /early 80s we had upwards of 25 local members. Now we have 2. Of course at that time we were allowed VHF only MARS activity, and had a bunch of repeaters around- every major city. MARS has changed several times during my tenure, but the main ingredient is that it needs active people. I have seen long time members not doing much, and I have seen new members, such as yourself who assume active roles- ncs, leadership positions, etc soon after completing their training. Of course I have noted the more time you have available, the better chance for that.
I would say, after you get your hf set up and running give it another shot. And make sure you have a fairly decent antenna. I have seen a lot of folks get discouraged because the ncs cant hear them, or they cant hear the nets.

I am not sure where you are at in OK. I get to the OKC area a couple times a year. I used to bring along a handheld and there was a repeater at Tinker, but there was only the guy who set it up who was on, but I have not heard it lately. Also used to check in to a CAP VHF net but  haven't heard it lately.  The last 2 trips this fall I just had my VX8 with me and about only did APRS.

I am a member of the W5PAA group even though I don't live there.
73, and good luck
Dave 

I have used  fed rain gutter many different times. Current use  for the past 2 years is fed with an MFJ927 auto tuner.  I have no trouble with 160-10 meter coverage.  I also keep power low 25-50 watts to avoid rfi. Dont expect  to be king of the band, but I do make contacts, and even dx on 20-10 meters. also use for CAP and USAF  MARS HF SSB.  I was just using it in both the cw and fone sweepstakes this month.

73   Dave

that would be fine. in Missouri we are in AF MARS North Central area. If you google AF MARS North Central area you will  locate our website. I am in Florissant.   

I am in the STL area, and an AF Mars member. The AF Mars Hq is at Scott, although it is just the Mars Director, an additional duty position. AF Mars is  run by the affiliates, little military involvement. The Director provides program oversight. 
I beleive Army Mars Hq was in Arizona if it still is.

There is an intergovernmental organization called SHARES- which certain Mars members of all 3 services, and also our counterpart CAP (Civil Air Patrol ) can be authorized to participate in. FEMA particiaptes thru this program.

There are quite a few Army Mars members in Eastern Mo. They usually meet up annually at the Washington, Mo. hamfest. There are only 2 of us AF Mars members in eastern Mo, and a couple  in the Belleville area. At the peak in the mid 70's, we had 25 just in the STL area. 

I always recommend speaking directly with an active  member of the Mars program one is wanting to join. That is the best way to see if it is what you are looking for.

73, Dave KA0P

KA

It is fairly easy to join AF MARS. The only difficulty is you now are a temporary member and have a training callsign and have 6 months to  complete. You have to take a short test, send 2 drill messages, one has to be an EEI message in a digital mode, and spend 1 hour as NCS, then you become a full member, and you have to have digital capability when you join. and of course have equipment capable of operating on AF MARS frequencies.

In the 70s and early 80s, USAF used their MARS program as  an actual  backup comm system. Each active base had a MARS station on the air during the weekdays, and there were several key stations on 24/7, manned by active duty airmen in the radio operator specialty- was a good training for those who would go on to work at the HF air/ground stations. I recall the training area at Keesler AFB had a room full of  Heath HW-18s running into dummy loads, they used for operator training.

The affiliate members would then take over the nets in the evenings, however affiliates could check in during the day.

I was a navaid tech, but volunteered at the station on base when I was off duty.
I sent a pm with my email address. 


   

pm sent. I was stationed at Richards- Gebaur in Kansas City, which at the time was Air Force Communications Service HQ. 

 We were probably  active Air Force around the same time- 72-77? although I was stationed in Mo.  I still maintain my MARS Membership although most of the benefits you decribe are long gone

If you ask around enough you might find some folks who have remnants of the old parts and publications banks in a garage or basement. No equipment issue for a long time, most was pretty useless anyway. Lot of tech advice still around. If there is a newletter, it is  most likely on- line only.

With the push toward a lot of digital activity, requiring pretty  stable equipment,   the days of swapping out the heterodyne oscillator crystals in my HW-101 to get on the AF frequencies is a distant memory.

73   

If you have not yet heard from AF, let me know what state you are in and will see if I can help. I am in AF Mars in  Missouri. AF Mars is undergoing a transition to a new Region structure starting 1 Jan, and official are busy assigning new callsigns to most stations, and 1 Jan is usually a date for some officials to step down and new ones take over, so that may be part of the delay.  

I checked and mine is not there, I had the First Class and it was converted to a GROL in 1985 I am incontact with them via email, but so far all they have said is it is not there, and have not asked me to send in a copy to them.

Sir, PA does have a AF MARS state director, the reason the google does not work using the PA is that USAF MARS is set up as  a regional operation. The basic net the is region HF net. Each state may have a block of time, usually one or two hours each week for an administrative net. PA is in USAF MARS region 1. If you do a google for usaf mars region 1, you will see the region 1 website, and you can navigate through it for further information.  
Good luck in your searches.

Dave KA0P/AFA3GC  

AF Mars has not moved to VHF as primary operation. In areas where there is a base, or a large number of members there is probably VHF operation either on a repeater or simplex, but the primary operation is HF. I am a long time AF Mars member, since 1972. Our operation , though small is primary HF. One of the reasons is probably that our frequencies have usually been somewhat removed from the amateur bands, and , not reachable within the VFO band  coverage overlap of 1950-1980 generations of equipment.  

It is primarily run by volunteer affiliates handling the day to day business as their schedules allow. The primary net operation is the region HF net. Once a person finishes training, there are digital nets, digital pbbs operations, a daily Transcon net, and phone patch nets (authorization required).

I and would be glad to provide whatever information I can to anyone considering AF MARS.